MARK COLVIN: Official statistics from Beijing suggest that China's economy appears to be picking up. But Chinese exports were much weaker than expected in November. That's dampened hopes that the economy has turned the corner.

There is though good news for Australia in a reported surge in iron ore imports.

Finance reporter Sue Lannin.

SUE LANNIN: If you believe the official economic figures from China, the glass is half full. Factory production jumped to an eight-month high of just over 10 percent for the year to November. Retail sales surged by an annual rate of nearly 15 per cent, with strong sales of jewellery and cars. Consumer inflation is at a three year low of 2 per cent.

Commodities analyst, Jonathan Barratt, runs Barratt's Bulletin.

JONATHAN BARRATT: On Sunday we had a good snapshot, we had the consumer price index, producer price index, industrial production and retail sales. What it should us was consumer action was a little bit lower, producer prices was lower, but then we had industrial production which was higher at 10.10, and retail sales at 14.90. All those numbers were a little bit higher than expected and as a result of that we can conclude that perhaps we're not going to have a hard landing in China.

SUE LANNIN: Not everyone shares such a rosy view, especially when scepticism is a good idea when it comes to Chinese statistics.

Zhang Zhiwei is China chief economist for Nomura Holdings.

ZHANG ZHIWEI: Our official unemployment survey done by a university - 8.1 per cent, quite a bit higher than the government official statistic of 4 per cent. I think part of it is structural employment, that is many people who could find a job, and not a very good job, they chose to stay at home.

SUE LANNIN: The dark underbelly of the data was the trade figures. Chinese imports and exports are still struggling. Beijing is trying to shift its economy from one dependent on exports to an economy more dependent on domestic consumption. Exports rose just under 3 per cent over the year, imports were flat.

Jonathan Barratt says the problems in Europe and the US are weighing on China.

JONATHAN BARRATT: When you look at China there are two economies: the internal and the external economy. And when you look at what's really happened in terms of the export economy, there's not a lot happening, obviously because of what we're seeing in the States and what we're seeing in Europe.

When you look at the import side of it, obviously they need imports to turn around and then export, but at the moment I think that's more of a function of what's happening internationally than a function of what'll happen in the future.

SUE LANNIN: But there was some light at the end of tunnel. Jonathan Barratt says iron ore exports jumped to the highest in almost two years in November.

JONATHAN BARRATT: Look this is really interesting because a lot of manufacturing I guess starts with your primary inputs. And when you can really start to see some of those numbers starting to come through it probably suggests to me that there's a bit of restocking that's carrying on or going on at the moment.

SUE LANNIN: But what happens if the restocking stops in the new year; that's not good for Australia?

JONATHAN BARRATT: I don't think that will be, given the feeling that we have towards how the economy will start to shape up to iron ore prices that these levels have been quite cheap. And I think that there is more demand that is required.

SUE LANNIN: The Australian dollar fell after the Chinese trade data came out; no greater sign of how our fortunes are linked to China.